video appears right-side up. You can change the viewing angle of the probe (enabling it
to see around corners) by attaching the included 110° mirror accessory to the tip.
See p. 14 for attachment instructions.
For precision inspection work, consider purchasing General’s PM003, a set of three
mirrored tips with viewing angles of 70°, 90° and 110° that fit all of the company’s
5.5mm diameter high-performance probes. To further increase The Viper 1700’s viewing
flexibility, consider purchasing a flexible-obedient probe, which retains its configured
shape and is therefore better for inspecting behind walls, under floors and above
ceilings. For the ultimate in viewing flexibility, General offers four articulating probes, one
with a VGA resolution camera (P16HPART) and three with a QVGA resolution camera
(P16ART-1SM/2SM/3SM). All four, in effect, let you set their viewing angle over a 300°
arc centered on the probe’s main axis. The table on p. 24 lists the part numbers and key
specifications of all General probes compatible with the DCS1700.
Before using The VIPER 1700 system, carefully read the Operating, Maintenance &
Troubleshooting Tips section of this manual on pp. 22 and 23 to understand how to use
a borescope probe properly and avoid using it improperly. To protect the delicate
camera-tipped end of the P16181HP probe, reinstall the rubber lens cap after each
inspection session.
The DCS1700 can be powered for up to four hours by the same set of four “AA”
batteries. It’s time to replace the batteries when the battery icon appears at the lower
left of the display during viewing of live video. The first sign of weak batteries is a
change in the appearance of the icon from a steady white to a flashing red. When the
batteries are critically low, the flashing will stop and the icon will switch to a solid red.
To replace the batteries, follow the procedure on p. 8 of this manual.
VIEWING LIVE VIDEO ON A TV MONITOR
The DCS1700 comes with a video cable for connecting the console to any TV or TV
monitor that uses either the NTSC or PAL analog broadcast standard. By making the
connection, you can view live video, or saved videos and pictures, on a screen larger
than the DCS1700’s.
To make the connection
, insert the yellow RCA plug of the video cable into the Video in
jack of your TV monitor and set the TV’s input to external video. Then insert the stereo
mini-plug of the cable into either the Probe video out jack on the left side of the unit or
the LCD video out jack on the right side of the unit.
Which jack should you use? In most cases, use the LCD video out jack because its
output exactly matches what appears on the LCD—including any brightness
adjustments or zooming that you have used to improve the clarity or detail of your
inspection target. The only reason to use the Probe video out jack is to compare the
details of a real-time scene to those of the same scene recorded on the SD card at an
earlier time. To do so, you would view a recorded clip of the scene on the LCD of the
DCS1700 while looking at live video of the same field of view on a TV. This would make
any change in the position or appearance of a component or object easy to spot.
Before making either external connection, make sure that your DCS1700 is configured
to export video in the same format as your TV or TV monitor. The default format is NTSC.
You can switch to PAL format by following the instructions on p. 19.
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